Enzymatic reactions in subcritical and supercritical fluids

Supercritical fluids possess properties that make them attractive as media for chemical and biochemical reactions. Conducting reactions at supercritical conditions affords opportunities to manipulate the solvent properties by manipulating pressure and/or temperature, to enhance the solubilities of reactants and products, to reduce interphase transport limitations in terms to enhance the reaction rates, to improve the selectivity and to integrate reaction and separation steps. This perspective presents the developments of the past three decades on enzyme catalysed processes in the field of research and highlights the gaps and challenges for commercialization.